


Somebody I Can Kiss

by crazygirlne



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Earth, But Post Canon, F/M, Fluff, Prompt Fill, Romance, technically canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 15:57:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10722516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazygirlne/pseuds/crazygirlne
Summary: A Waverider malfunction takes the Legends to alternate Earths. On one of these, Sara and Leonard get a bit of help (and a surprise or two) from their counterparts.





	Somebody I Can Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> From an anon prompt from [this list](http://captainwhogotthecanary.tumblr.com/post/159756527834/prompt-fun): Captain Canary, Alternate Earth, Romance, Letters
> 
> I am putting most of these fills in my Oneshots collection, but this was longer than I expected and has some elements I wouldn't mind revisiting, so it gets its own story.

Something had gone wrong with one of Gideon’s drives, and Sara and her crew had spent weeks traveling from one version of Earth to the next. Some were drastically different from what they were used to, occasionally to the extent that she refused to let anyone off the ship. Leonard, as unofficial first mate, helped her enforce that when needed. 

For the most part, though, the worlds are almost eerily similar, the changes minor enough to hide from initial evaluation. In these, she lets her crew explore, with strict instructions to be cautious. 

They usually listen. Mostly. 

On one such Earth—Sara's stopped trying to figure out how the numbering system works, because shouldn't each Earth consider itself Earth-1?—after all but Sara and Leonard have left the ship, Gideon announces the presence of a second Waverider. 

Sara looks at Leonard, and they have the sort of silent conversation that’s so easy now. When he nods, she speaks.

“Gideon, we’re gonna go see if the other Waverider crew can help us sort out whatever’s making us change Earths every time we go anywhere. If the others come looking for us, don’t tell them where we are unless too much time has passed.” Her lips quirk upward as she watches Leonard. “I really don’t want to deal with two versions of everybody if we can avoid it.”

“Yes, Captain,” Gideon says pleasantly. “What should I tell them if they ask sooner rather than later?”

Sara shrugs, absently grabbing a jacket and heading toward the exit. “Use your discretion.”

“Will do, Captain.”

“What are the chances Rip’s still captain on this other ship?” Leonard asks as they make their way to their destination.

Rip hasn’t been captain (or even full-time crew) for a while now, for them at least, but he still drops in from time to time. Sara’s never figured out how he finds them quite so easily, and Gideon refuses to tell. 

“I guess we’ll find out soon,” Sara says, glancing over at him. “We’re not that far. I’m surprised we didn’t notice the ship earlier.”

“Probably some sort of safety feature,” Leonard says, voice betraying exactly how little he thinks of the feature, if that’s the case. He’s wearing his normal jacket, and it takes her a second to realize the one she’s wearing is actually very similar.

It’s not the first time it’s happened; the two of them are often on the same page, for so much more than clothing choices.

She’s pretty sure the crew suspects they’re sleeping together, and she’d be fine with them thinking that. If it were true. Instead, it amuses and irks her by turns. Sara relies on Leonard more than she’s ever relied on anyone, trusts him implicitly. The fact that she’s also attracted to him is irrelevant, or at least that’s what she tells herself. They haven’t discussed anything between them since he finally rejoined the team after being “dead” for far too long.

They’ve just fallen into a partnership, easy as breathing.

It doesn’t affect what he has with Mick, somehow. The two of them are as close as ever, even if Leonard does spend more time with Sara most days. 

They reach the other Waverider, which drops its camouflage and opens the hatch upon their approach. She sets her senses to alert as they step aboard, and she feels Leonard do the same, both of them ready to deal with it if the crew isn’t exactly friendly.

“Gideon,” Sara calls.

“Yes, Sara?”

Sara? That’s new. “Can you tell me where to find the captain?”

“Captain Lance will meet you on the bridge shortly.”

“Looks like I’m captain here, too,” Sara says, grinning at Leonard. “That should make things easier, I hope.” Stranger, too, maybe; it’s not like she hasn’t encountered other versions of herself in this skipping around they’ve been doing, but it’s not like it’s gotten normal yet, either.

They make their way to the bridge, each of them a little more relaxed since they won’t be dealing with a captain who’s a stranger. The bridge is empty, and Sara makes her way to her normal chair. Everything seems the same, but there’s a handful of papers resting on top of one of the displays. She picks the papers up, curious, feeling Leonard come up behind her.

_ Sara, _

_ I feel the need to say again that just because we’re stuck in the 50s does not mean we need to resort to keeping journals. Your suggestion to do it letter-style makes it more tolerable, at least, but I don’t need to write about my day in order to remember it. _

_ Unfortunate, since I’d really like to forget how often we walked in on Raymond and Kendra before we found our own place. _

Sara looks over her shoulder. “This is your handwriting, Len.” She turns back to the papers. “Looks like you got left behind with me, Ray, and Kendra.” 

_ I don’t know that I’ll ever actually share these with you, but if something so simple as writing once a week will make you happy, I suppose I can deal with the inconvenience. _

_ Snart _

She thumbs through the rest of the stack, too quickly to really read anything, just trying to see how often he wrote, and her eyes catch on the word  _ love _ before she hears footsteps entering the bridge. Sara sets down the letters and turns in sync with Leonard, expecting to see this world’s version of herself.

Instead, it’s another version of Leonard. He’s frowning at them, but he doesn’t look shocked, so Gideon must have given him a heads up. He moves to the console near the middle of the room, leaning back against it, facing them and crossing his arms.

“Gideon says you want to see the captain,” he says, and everything, the drawl and the posture, everything about him is so familiar that Sara can’t help but grin as she takes a step forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with her own version of Leonard.

“Yeah,” she answers. “We were expecting to see another me. We don’t run into you as often.”

The Leonard next to her is quiet as the one facing them raises an eyebrow. “You run into other versions of yourself frequently?”

“That’s why we wanted to talk to whoever was in charge here,” she answers, idly wondering where her doppelganger is hiding and when she’ll show up. She briefly runs through their situation, the men listening quietly, attentively, unmoving.

“I was thinking maybe someone on board might have some ideas we haven’t tried,” she finishes. “Like maybe your versions of Jax or Ray think a little differently than ours. Do you have them on board?”

“Yes, Sara,” Gideon chimes helpfully, “they are part of our crew. However, they aren’t on board at this precise moment.”

“Why does she call me Sara?” she asks, bemused by how odd it sounds from the AI.

“It’s simpler to use our first names.” The local Leonard looks between her and his double, wearing the expression Sara knows means he’s considering how much information to share and how much to play close to his chest. He uncrosses his arms and rests his hands on the edge of the console instead, still leaning back against it. “Being co-captains who share a last name gets a bit complicated otherwise.”

Her eyes are drawn suddenly to that Leonard's left hand, where he’s wearing a ring she’s never seen on him. He’s got the simple piece of jewelry on his ring finger, unmistakable as anything but a wedding band. 

Here she’s been waiting for Captain Lance, and they’re already talking to him.

“You’re—” Sara starts, turning to her own Leonard. His expression hasn’t changed; he’d already figured it out, somehow. “We’re—” She looks back to Captain Leonard  _ Lance. _ “You and Sara are married?”

“And you’re not,” he answers simply, looking between them again before pausing to meet his own cautious gaze. “You’re not even together.”

“How do you…” Sara has too many questions, all of them warring for attention. “Where am… Where’s your  _ wife?” _ she manages finally, leaning against the comforting shoulder at her side.

The captain’s expression softens for the first time since they’ve arrived. “She’s sleeping,” he says, and Sara’s not quite sure why something so simple would make him go so soft, but she feels Leonard tense next to her.

He speaks, and Sara realizes it’s the first time he’s done so since they reached the bridge. “Any chance you can get Raymond and the kid back here so we can get home?”

Things move quickly for a little while after that. Leonard goes off to work with the mechanical types, and Sara finds herself sitting back in her chair, eyeing the letters again with more than passing curiosity. She wants to read more, but now that she knows that this version of herself and Leonard are together, it feels too personal to read without permission. 

_ Together.  _

There’s a physical ache in her chest as she thinks about it, about being the sort of partner who would  _ marry  _ Leonard. It takes her only a minute to place the ache as yearning, which sets her mind reeling.

She knew she wanted to be with him, admitted it at least to herself in those honest moments between waking and dreaming (and oh, her dreams…), but marriage? Sara hadn’t realized quite how deep her feelings for Leonard run.

She startles when his voice comes from right behind her.

“She’s been sentimental lately, and a little forgetful.” It’s the captain. “It’s not the first time she’s forgotten the letters there.”

“So you did let her read them?” she says before she can think better of it, continuing quickly. “I only read the first one, before I knew…” Before she knew how much was different.

He tilts his head, half a nod. “She found them. It was how she found out I had feelings for her, too.”

“Because you got stuck with her,” she prompts. She refuses to think about the little hints she’s gotten from her own Leonard that suggest he might have feelings, because if he really does, what the hell have they been doing all this time?

“That helped,” he allows, “but the feelings were there before then.”

So much for that bit of denial. “Tell me?” she asks. She knows she’s not being clear, but he seems to understand.

Of course he does. Her own Leonard would, and this one probably knows her even better.

“We moved into our own apartment,” he says, “mostly to get away from the lovebirds. Things between us were as platonic as they ever were”—his lips twitch, and Sara thinks of how often there’s heat between them, and flirting, and looks that probably don’t qualify as strictly platonic, and oh god she’s been deluding herself so badly—“until she found about six months’ worth of letters.” He looks from the letters to Sara. “I wasn’t exactly subtle about my affections in what amounted to a journal.”

Sara swallows. “And then you were together after that?”

He eyes her contemplatively before reaching for the letters, pulling one out and handing it to her, falling silent as she reads.

_ Sara, _

_ It’s been a year since you started making me write these. We’ve been together about six months. _

_ I can’t say how grateful I am that you bullied me into writing like this. _

_ Things are better than I ever would have guessed possible, and if you’re willing, I’d like to take a step I never believed I would. _

_ Asking you to marry me in a letter probably breaks every rule in the book, but since these letters were the catalyst for our relationship, it seems only fitting. _

_ You make my life better. You make me better. _

_ Sara Lance, will you marry me? _

She feels tears pressing at her eyes as she looks up at the captain, who’s watching the floor. “When she finished reading, I was kneeling in front of her with a ring. She still gives me grief over how corny it was.”

“But she said yes.”

He smiles, just slightly, but it’s so unguarded that it barely looks like him. “She said yes. We got married the next day; she said there was no reason to wait.”

“And you took our last name.” It doesn’t quite feel real, and for her, she guesses, it isn’t, but it’s so obviously real for the man in front of her. 

“Really, me taking her name instead of the other way around was more of a ‘screw you’ to the locals than anything.” He shrugs. “If it was a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to the old man, as well, all the better.” He pauses. “What’s different on your Earth?”

“For the Earth itself?” She shakes her head. “Not that much. On the Waverider…” She sets the letter carefully with the others. “Leonard was still on the Waverider when it took off. We didn’t have that time together.” She swallows. “And then he died at the Oculus. He’s been back for a while, but we haven’t…”

The captain nods. “The time alone together was significant.” His jaw clenches. “We almost lost Sara at the Oculus. It was only luck that we had what we needed to make sure the button would stay down, even with tampering, but she refused to let go until we figured it out.”

She can see the pain in his eyes, and she knows how much worse it would’ve been, losing Len, if they’d had two more years and a marriage between them. 

He hesitates, looking like he wants to say something, but her own Leonard returns in that moment. 

“We’ve got what we need,” he announces, and the Earth-whatever Leonard nods, his normal mask slipping back into place.

She hadn’t even realized he’d dropped it, and it takes her a second to realize that’s because of how rarely Len uses it when it’s just the two of them.

“Great,” she says, meaning it, because as enlightening (or confusing as hell) as this has been, she’s really ready to get back to her own Earth, where there aren’t  _ usually  _ other versions of herself or her crew. She stands, ready to follow Leonard back to their Waverider; with a perfunctory nod to his double, he’s already started toward the exit. She pauses when the captain rests a light hand on her arm.

“He needs you,” he says quietly, “but he won’t tell you unless he knows you need him, too.”

Sara has to force herself to breathe again. “It was nice meeting you,” she says, “but I hope we never have see each other again.”

He smirks and drops his hand. “Likewise.”

She catches up with Leonard, who’s waiting for her just outside the ship.

“Well,” she says, “that was… something.”

“Eloquent,” he teases without looking at her, still a little more tense than usual.

She ignores the jab. “What’s wrong?”

He’s quiet for long enough that she’s not sure he’s going to answer before they get back to their ship. “He has things I didn’t even think were possible.”

Sara recalls the similar wording from the letter. “You mean being married?”

He lets out a breath that’s almost a sigh. “That, and the  _ Lances _ have a baby on the way.” Sara blinks as she puts the pieces together; her counterpart was sleeping, had been sentimental and forgetful, how soft Leonard went when he mentioned her rest. “I suspected, but I think this Raymond is even more talkative than ours. He confirmed it.” He stops walking. They’ve reached the Waverider, but he doesn’t seem ready to board. “He has a family.”

His voice is rough, and he won’t meet her eyes. She steps as close to him as she dares, not sure whether she should reach out to him. “It’s not like you’re alone,” she says, and there, he’s meeting her eyes, and her breath catches at the depth of emotion there. “You have everyone on board the Waverider. We’re all family.” To hell with it. She takes his hand in hers, and he twitches before returning her grip. “You have  _ me.”  _ Sara remembers the captain’s parting words. “No matter what happens, you’ll always have me. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

There. Okay, maybe it’s not explicit, but it’s honest, and if he doesn’t pick up on it, then maybe he doesn’t want her that way, despite how it seems, despite—

He presses his lips to hers, using his free hand to cup her cheek, and it’s everything she’s wanted for so long and been afraid to admit, afraid to ask for. When they pull apart, his eyes are dark.

“I don’t want to assume we’ll follow in their footsteps,” he says, “but I won’t say it isn’t something I’ve never considered.”

_ I started to wonder what the future might hold for me, and you, and me and you. _

She kisses him again, quick and hard. “I tried too hard not to think about what our future might look like. I wanted it too much.” 

“We’ll find out together,” he says quietly, leaning in for another kiss, which is interrupted by Ray’s triumphant voice.

“See? I told you they were together.” Sara looks away from Len and sees Ray and Mick approaching. “You owe me ten bucks.”

“While you were taking bets on our love life, apparently,” Leonard drawls, straightening but not dropping Sara’s hand, “we were solving the problem with the Waverider.”

“We can get home?” Ray is much too excited, but something about it feels right; Sara’s excited, too.

“We’re going home,” Sara confirms. “Get back on board. We’ll gather the rest of the team and go from there.”

Ray and Mick board the ship, and Sara looks back toward Leonard.

“Ready?” she asks, and he leans in to claim the kiss that was so rudely interrupted.

“After you, Captain Lance,” he says, voice full of promise and hope.

Without letting go of his hand, she leads them on board. “Then let’s get home.”


End file.
